Airplane



7, 1943. D. R. BERLIN- 2,326,819

AIRPLANE Fild Aug. 28,'l94O INVENTOR 7 DONOVAN Q. BERUN ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 17, 1943 srAE s FATE,

: OFFME AIRP Donovan R. Berlin, Eggerts'ville, N. Y-., assignor to Curtiss-Wright Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Application August 28, 1940, Serial No. 354.5%

Claims. (Cl. 244-313) This invention. relates to a type of aircraft wherein the wings, control elements, body and power plant are arranged in a novel manner with respect to each other.

An object of the invention is to provide a tailless aircraft, without the excessive inherent sta-' range, with low landing and take-on speed and high flight speed. Another object is to provide an aircraft from which crew and passengers may enjoy a wide range of uninterruptedvisibility.

Further objects will appear while reading the following-detailed description in connection with the drawing,inwhich:

Fig. 1 is a plan of the aircraft; Fig. 2 is a front elevation; and Fig. 3 is a side elevation. A central streamlined body or nacelle carries cabin quarters forward as at H, and an engine compartment 12, aft. The engine drives a pusher propeller l3 at the rear end of the nacelle,

which may be tandemed with another propeller I3. From the lower parts of the nacelle sides,

laterally extending wings l4, I5 project, these being tapered cantilever wings having swept back -leading edges and substantially straight-across trailing edges, as shown. One or more lowerab e landing naps [6 are carried at the'wing trailing edges, these flaps being coextensive with the win span. Y

The nacelle carries a tricycle retractable landing gear consisting of a front steerable wheel l8 and laterally spacedrear wheels l9 disposed below and rearward of the aircraft center of gravity.

At the outer end, or tip, of each wing I4 and I5, an elongated streamlined boom 21 is secured,

each boom starting substantially at the leading edge of its wing and extending rearwardly of the trailing edge thereofrearwardly, in fact, of the transverse plane of the propellers l3 and I3. A vertical fin 22 and a horizontal stabilizer 23 are rigidly secured to the rear end of each boom, and to the trailing edges thereof, a rudder 24 and an elevator 25 are respectively hinged, these airfoils lying rearwardly of the propeller plane. Control cables or apparatus of known character are led from the hinged airfoils to the cabin II, and are arranged so that the two rudders 24 are moved jointly in the same direction, and so that the two elevators 25 may be selectively moved together in the same direction to act as elevators, and in opposite directions to act as ailerons.

At the forward ends of the booms, vertical antiend-loss fins 26 and 211 are installed, coextensive with the wing tip chord, but these may be eliminated, if desired, since the booms 2| are thicker than the wing tips and themselves serve to some extent as end loss preventers.

It will be noted that the occupants of the cabin I l have a very wide range of vision forward and laterally, with no interference from tractor nacelles and other forward protuberances. The wing is effective throughout its entire span, and complex tail or empennage structure is avoided. By the consolidation of the elevator function with the ailerons, one or .more hinged flaps are done away with. In virtue of locating all'the control surfaces at the wing tips, the surfaces may be made much smaller than on the conventional tail type aircraft as long moment arms are afforded by the wing semi-spans. The wings may be strengthened as necessary over conventional practice to assume the added control load transmitted through them.

While I have described my invention in detail in its present preferred embodiment, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art, after understanding my invention, that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit or scope thereof. I aim in the appended claims to cover all suchmodifijacent to the wing leading edge, said booms being thicker than the wing tips to extend respectively above and below the top and bottom surfaces thereof to function as end plates tending to eliminate wing-tip losses, and an independent set of horizontal and vertical stabilizers mounted I at the rear end of each boom.

2. In aircraft, astreamlined body having a propeller at its rearward end, swept-back wings extending laterally out from said body adjacent to its rearward end, an elongated streamlined boom mounted adjacent to the tip of each wing and extended rearwardly beyond the trailing edge thereof from a'point adjacent to the wing leading edge, said booms being thicker than the wing tips to extend respectively above and below the top and bottom surfaces thereof to function as end plates tending to eliminate wing-tip losses,

and a vertical and horizontal control surface mounted at the rearward end of each boom.

3. In aircraft, a streamlined body having a propeller at its rearward end, swept-back wings ex-- tending laterally out from said body adjacent to 5 its rearward end, each wing having a rearwardly inclined leading edge and a trailing edge substantially perpendicular to said body, an el0n-. gated streamlined boom mounted adjacent to the tip of each wing and extending rearwardly be- 10 yond its trailing edge from a point adjacent to the wing leading edge, a trailing edge lowerable landing flap carried by each wing, each flap be-- ing substantially coextensive with its associated wing from body to boom, and a vertical and horl- 15 zontal stabilizer mounted at the rearward end of each boom.

4. In aircraft, a laterally extending wing on each side of the fore-and-aft axis of the aircraft,

' at theouter end of each wing, a trailing edge above and below the wing tips, a boom mounted at the outer end of each wing to extend rearwardly beyond the trailing edge thereof, and a vertical and horizontal control surface mounted at the rearward end of each boom aft of the plane of rotation of the propeller and substantially coplanar with the wing tip fins and wings the leading edge of each wing being swept back 20 respectively.

and the trailing edge thereof being substantially straight, a rearwardly extending boom mounted .DONOVAN R. BERLIN. 

